# s6

9 Hacker News commenters recommended s6 and 2 criticized it, November 2025 to November 2026. It was recommended in 6 of 13 months.

**Verdict:** Free process supervision suite in the daemontools lineage that avoids systemd's downsides. Critics find it complex and not configurable through simple config files.

## Why people recommend it

- Follows daemontools-style design lineage (2 comments): "looks like whoever wrote this is a fan of the DJB style, as am I" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46417848)) "daemontools, runit, s6 solve that problem" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46790663))

## What people warn about

- Complex tooling frustrates users (2 comments): "every time I see the existence of s6-rc-compile I get heated" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46670565)) "the complexity was hidden away from me" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46680413))

## Alternatives hackers recommend

- [OpenRC](https://hackerapproved.com/p/openrc.md): 21 recommend
- [SysVinit](https://hackerapproved.com/p/sysvinit.md): 19 recommend
- [runit](https://hackerapproved.com/p/runit.md): 19 recommend
- [Upstart init system](https://hackerapproved.com/p/upstart.md): 11 recommend
- [dinit](https://hackerapproved.com/p/dinit.md): 9 recommend

## Cite as

Hacker Approved, "s6", https://hackerapproved.com/p/s6/ (counts from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026).